* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Judas in the manga is more emotive than his game counterpart and more prone to outbursts of anger, flat out attacking Elraine when she [[spoiler: attempts to expose his identity.]]** The degree of Harold's insanity is [[ObfuscatingInsanity up for debate.]] Is she really off her rocker all the time, [[{{Troll}} or is it a ruse to mess with people or gain attention?]]* AngstWhatAngst: Kyle's [[spoiler: father was killed in front of him and his mother was crippled.]] He's sad about it, but doesn't seem to mind too much even when he remembers. Averted with Loni, who does remember and ''is'' upset about it, and with Harold and Judas, who both lose loved ones but just don't show their sadness too openly- Certain skits do show they're still pretty sad about their losses.* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: A party of Kyle, Reala, Judas, and Harold are pretty much the ''only'' party you will see use of, Nanaly and Loni are usually ditched the first chance the other three come along and stay along. * CompleteMonster: [[BloodKnight Barbatos Goetia]], a former member of the Er'ther Army, [[DirtyCoward sold out his people]] to the Aetherians during the Aeth'er Wars so that he could be on the winning side. Due to the scale of the atrocities he committed, Barbatos's name was removed from history altogether. Following his resurrection by [[BigBad Elraine]], Barbatos [[TheDragon acts]] as her [[PsychoForHire personal assassin]], going after the heroes who saved the world from the resurrection of the Aethersphere and the superweapon Belcrant. In order to kill two of these heroes, Stahn and Rutee, Babartos uses a little boy as a hostage and [[WouldHurtAChild threatens to kill him]] unless they drop their weapons. After they do so, Barbatos kills Stahn and cripples Rutee. Barbatos then tries to kill High Priestess Philia Felice and King Garr Kelvin of Phandaria, the latter of which he attempts to kill after crashing an airship into the royal castle as a distraction. When he returns with Elraine to the past, Barbatos encounters Dymlos, the old enemy who had killed him, and, in revenge, kidnaps a girl who's in love with Dymlos to use her as a hostage to force the weakened Dymlos to duel him. [[ItsAllAboutMe Utterly self-centered]], Barbatos's ultimate goal and obsession is to force history to recognize him as a hero, even as he commits every evil deed imaginable and [[EvilCannotComprehendGood has no comprehension]] of what [[WrongGenreSavvy true heroism is]].* CrazyAwesome: Harold borders on this. During one skit, she offers Loni some home-cooked food. Loni (correctly) guesses that she's spiked the food with paralysing powder so that she can drag his body off for experimentation, and eats some of Nanaly's food instead. Turns out, Harold ''knew'' he'd come to that conclusion and switched the plates.** The full version of her last Mystic Arte, Crazy Comet, is this as well as a GameBreaker.* DemonicSpiders: Any Reaper or Ghost enemies, which like to teleport around out of reach (usually behind a StoneWall type enemy) and cast high level magic. Even worse is that where you find one, you will find the other, and it is possible for encounters to comprise of only Ghosts and Reapers constantly casting magic at you and trapping you in a CycleOfHurting. ** The Egg and Cyclops enemies in Spiral Cave are both incredibly annoying for different reasons. The Eggs are annoying because they [[DamageSponge soak up a ton of damage]] and ruin your Grade, while the Cyclops teleport around out of reach to cast magic.* DieForOurShip: Kyle of all people gets some because he's Stahn and Rutee's son, which invalidates the FanPreferredCouple [[HoYay Stahn[=/=]Leon]] from the previous game.* EnsembleDarkhorse: Barbatos is basically the EnsembleDarkhorse for all Tales villains. Helps that it's THE Creator/NorioWakamoto behind his voice.** Nanaly Fletch may also be a minor version of this, appearing/announced for spinoff games first before [[TheHero Kyle]] even appears/get announced. She even appeared overseas ''first'' out of all the cast. (She appeared as a cameo boss in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''.)* GameBreaker: All magic in this game is overpowered compared to melee (according to WordOfGod, to encourage [[SocializationBonus cooperative play]]), but Harold's full Crazy Comet spell is so insanely powerful the full version has to be showcased on bosses because the usual enemies won't survive long enough for the whole thing. The last stage ''heals your party after dealing high thousands of points of damage''. It's only balanced by requiring a lot of TP to use (you're guaranteed to have to use a TP restoring item on her to use it) and only being unlockable on the second playthrough of the game. In later games, the spell is turned into a proper Mystic Arte, requiring you to be in overlimit to activate it.** The Title Glitch done properly will allow every character's stat growth to go through the roof, effectively removing every character's weaknesses. (Fast Loni, Beefy Judas, Quick Regenerating Mana Harold)* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game is one of the highest selling {{Role Playing Game}}s for the [=PS2=] in Taiwan.* GoodBadBugs: The Title Glitch, which done properly boosts characters' growth patterns significantly and nullifies their weak stats.** The summon glitch allowing Nanaly to summon Efreet and Undine, giving her access to two more hi-ougis.* GrowingTheBeard: Despite some mixed reactions to some story elements, this game is the first to introduce two of the franchise's staples- Grade and the Grade Shop for use on a NewGamePlus. It also included a polished (though still slightly unusual) Mystic Arte system.* InferredHolocaust: With Elraine creating several Bad Futures, including one spanning a thousand years in length with only three surviving cities, millions of people would have been erased from existence. This is retconned in the end, but it doesn't make it any less horrific.* ItWasHisSled: The fact that it is obviously [[spoiler:Leon beneath that mask]] has been lampshaded and parodied quite a bit. Here are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYXiJVwYEQM a]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_wsryWSlHE few]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQ7vhOriXw examples]].** Heck, some dramas treat this as a PaperThinDisguise. one good one was when Stahn saw [[spoiler: Leon]] (as Judas) and greeted him as [[spoiler: Leon]]. * LoveToHate: Barbatos Goetia. He's a horrific villain, but also a very over-the-top and entertaining LargeHam, especially in skits. People don't soften the evil things he's done, but love him for his vileness and intelligence.* MemeticMutation: Judas's mask and how [[PaperThinDisguise ineffective at hiding his true identity]] it is has become somewhat of a RunningGag amongst the VideoGame/TalesSeries fandom, especially in Japan. * MostAnnoyingSound: "Orokana". The quote Elraine ''calmly says'' as she bats your melees away for the ''third time in a row''. * NarmCharm: Kyle's famous "[[SayMyName REEEAAAALAAAAA]]" is either this or a TearJerker. * RomanticPlotTumour: Some people feel Kyle and Reala's romance plot, while well-developed and quite tragic, took the spotlight off of the more interesting side characters, leaving them there for gameplay and comedic purposes rather than any story significance starting in the third part of the game.* ThatOneBoss: Damn you, your freezing aura and your 100% deflect ability, Elraine. You only really have Loni for healing and it doesn't help that his AI tends to run in and get knocked back. Any time you close in on her, she'll freeze your combos dead on track.** '''Barbatos''', the second and third time you fight him. Especially frustrating in the latter, because at around half-health he [[AntiMagic starts countering any offensive spells]] with one of his own, which is the only really effective way to damage bosses in the game.** [[spoiler: Fortuna]] could also be considered this, simply because her fight [[MarathonBoss takes so long.]]* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Because of Reala's [[SpotlightStealingSquad tendency to be in the spotlight more]], some characters, like Loni and Nanaly, kind of stops being relevant after the LotusEaterMachine arc.** Harold may be a minor example, as she only joins the party late in the game and her arc ends fairly abruptly with [[spoiler: her brother's death]]. She does get a few skits afterwards (and one is a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming), but for the most part afterwards she only serves for exposition and comedic purposes. And to have a full-out mage.* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Many plot threads, especially near the end of the game, are quickly glossed over, such as the budding friendship between Harold and Judas over similar ruthless ideals and losses of people close to them, the revelation that Stahn was [[spoiler: DeadAllAlong, with Kyle witnessing his father's death]], Phillia possibly recognizing Judas, the StableTimeLoop created by [[spoiler: Chaltier's]] sacrifice (which causes some [[TimeyWimeyBall timey wimey]] FridgeLogic with the game's ending taken into account) and anything to do with Nanaly and Loni that didn't involve each other to instead focus on Kyle and Reala's relationship. While the development was good to avoid any [[StrangledByTheRedString string strangling that some Tales games suffer with official couples]], that's a lot of glossed over material.* TierInducedScrappy: Nanaly. Only one mystic arte, primarily focused on attacking, in a game where magic is considerably more buffed compared to others...people tend to ditch her when Harold comes along. A rather odd example, since Nanaly is actually ''beloved'' character-wise.* UncannyValley: Reala is a stick figure. Even with this game's [[NoodlePeople art style]], she looks weird. Her dress also makes her legs look much longer than they actually are and her torso look much smaller than it should be. This extends to even cameo appearances where she looks out of place, especially in her cameo for VideoGame/TalesOfGraces where she looks like a ten year old girl. There's also the issue of her skin tone being oddly pale with dark lips. She's supposed to be an example of RavenHairIvorySkin but comes off as more of an EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette combined with the obvious thinness.* TheWoobie: Everyone in the party has their moments of woobiedom, but Reala and Nanaly both go above and beyond:** While Reala might not be well-liked, it's hard to deny she doesn't at least gain some Woobie points through the course of the story. She's [[spoiler: created]] with a huge disadvantage compared to her DarkMessiah counterpart, initially cannot find the hero she needs [[spoiler: to prevent Elraine from creating a TerminallyDependentSociety]], and during the course of her journey falls in love with a boy who decides to [[spoiler: kill her creator, the only person keeping her alive.]] She doesn't say anything to try to reduce the pain Kyle would go through as a result of this, only for said counterpart to reveal both the truth of how she was [[spoiler: created]] and that she will die with glee. [[spoiler: While she does manage to come back to life in the end, she had no way of knowing survival was possible, and fully expected to be erased from existence.]]** Nanaly grew up in an orphanage with her brother, who got sick. Elraine offered to save his life, but only if they accepted brainwashing and having their free will removed entirely. Her brother died and she was left alone raising a bunch of orphans. Then, when she joins the party to fight Elraine, she gets put in a LotusEaterMachine where her brother's alive, only to be told he's not real. Then she has to reject her brother while he screamed and cried that he was real and didn't want her to leave him. Ouch.----